Below, read the second instalment of our three-part series in which influential African American thinkers sound off on the Hillary they know—and the Hillary they wish for: Democratic power broker Donna Brazile offers a fiery brief on behalf of our first female White House contender. (Also read part one: Salamishah Tillet on her slow-growing admiration for Hillary.)

When Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz took the fall for hacked e-mails days before this summer's convention, the party turned for leadership to Donna Brazile, a Sunday morning talk-show fixture whose Southern charms and political chops have made her the female James Carville. Brazile is also a celebrity in her own right—having portrayed herself on The Good Wife and House of Cards—and she literally sashayed off the stage after giving a rousing five-minute speech at the convention.

Born in segregated Kenner, Louisiana, in 1959, one of nine children of a domestic-worker mother and a manual-laborer father, Brazile first got involved in politics at the age of nine, when she worked to elect a city council candidate who'd promised to build a playground in her neighborhood. Her guy won, the swing set was erected, and, according to Brazile, her lifelong passion for progressive politics was ignited. She'd worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000 when she became the first African American to manage one—Al Gore's. Since then she has run her own political strategy firm in DC, advising Democrats in state and local races while remaining deeply involved in national party matters. She teaches women's and gender studies at Georgetown—and calls the Trump campaign "the last of the uglies," predicting that the next generation will reach new levels of tolerance and transform the country again.

"I'd go to my grave telling the world she's a woman of compassion, of valor."

Brazile was in her early twenties, working as an organizer for the Children's Defense Fund, when she first encountered CDF board member and First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Clinton.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

ELLE: What was your first impression of Hillary?

Donna Brazile: In the boardroom that day, I looked up, and here was a profoundly smart lawyer basically cracking the whip on why we couldn't give up, why we had to continue to fight for children's health care, for childhood poverty programs. I'd go to my grave telling the world she's a woman of compassion, of valor—she's used her political capital all her life to help poor kids.

You tell a story about how Hillary turned you on to Obama.

This is how Hillary operates. She gets excited, and like everybody else, when you get excited, you call your friends. And she's like, "Do you know Barack Obama?" He then gave the keynote at the 2004 DNC, and it was phenomenal. But it was Hillary who inspired us [to give him a national platform as a speaker at the convention].

African American women have voted at high rates in the last two elections—

Praise the Lord.

What part of Hillary's record suggests that they should support her?

I go back to health care. She failed, but she never gave up the mission. Fighting for children's health care was at the core of her, not just as a young activist, but also as First Lady and United States senator. It's something that she'll protect as the next president of the United States.

There is still anger and suspicion among some African Americans regarding Bill Clinton's support for mass incarceration and welfare reform.

Well, there are two strains of so-called lack of trust. One is general: The American people are sincerely tired of politics as usual. Then, maybe the Democrats and Republicans went too far with "three strikes, you're out," went too far with the sentencing guidelines.

I think she's taken that criticism well, as someone who was First Lady then. She's said, "Here's what I'd do differently now; here are the mistakes I think we made as a country." The platform that she's outlined [including reforming mandatory minimum sentences and prioritizing treatment rather than incarceration for nonviolent drug crimes]—we have to hold her accountable on those issues. I think she's willing to be held accountable.

There's a sense by some in the Black Lives Matter movement that she isn't their candidate.

The movement arose because many of our young people were sick and tired of seeing their friends being murdered. To a candidate like Hillary, I'd say: They have to be at the table; they will be at the table—they're the future of this country, and we've got to let them know that. And when I say "we," I include myself. I have 19 nieces and nephews. I care about them; I can't tell you the many, many nights I've cried—worried about them, worried about the kind of country they'll inherit.

Hillary would even be comfortable with these people who so-called hate her. But they're too busy hating her to get to know her.

Hillary has always surrounded herself with women of color—do you think that's strategic?

I never thought of it that way, but she's so comfortable around everybody. Hillary would even be comfortable with these people who so-called hate her. But they're too busy hating her to get to know her.

I've worked for a lot of politicians in my day, and I'm in the room and nobody else looks like me. There are some politicians where you have to open up your mouth and say, "Hello, hello, there are no women, no people of color, no LGBTQ people." You never have to do that with Hillary. You know for a fact she will not stomach it.

Do older and millennial black women feel differently about her?

The millennials may not be as impressed that, say, women of my generation [climbed up the ladder]; climbing up the ladder may not even be their goal. They may not see the ceiling that we see, the ceilings we've experienced. But they're so optimistic. I think Hillary has to be upbeat, aspirational, and she has to remind them that this is their future she's fighting for. Not just hers, but theirs.

Why should African American women trust Hillary?

Black women more than anyone else—and I'm prejudiced when I say this, maybe I shouldn't say it at all—but black women know a phony when we see one, and Hillary's no phony. Like I said, I spent a lot of time in the trenches with her, and she's the same woman I met when I was a kid.